TC&MN #10 How Expertise (Not Just Skills) Unlocked Geographic, Missional & Financial Freedom

The best way to get ahead is to learn to do something valuable that other people can't do - Naval Ravikant.

Your skills developed into expertise are your most valuable asset.    You use this asset to trade for equity in tech companies.   The more rare and valuable the skillset, the more you can trade for it.

Today, I will break down my 3 step system to turn your skills into expertise. 

By systematically building skills over time, you will become a rare and valuable asset that you can grow a brand and business around.   It starts with you realizing that you are your most valuable asset, and taking the time and effort to invest in yourself is the first step in building the life that you want. 

In today's fast-paced tech landscape, expertise isn't just a buzzword; it's your currency for success. 

Expertise will unlock the life that you want.  

• Geographic Freedom -  Deeply skilled professionals are flown all over the world for their expertise. 

• Missional Freedom -  Expertise can be leveraged into a thought leader practice that is a lifestyle business for you. 

• Financial Freedom - Expertise can allow you to trade for large amounts of equity in great companies to grow your wealth. 

With valuable skills, you can unlock opportunities and freedoms you would not have otherwise.    

This was my exact experience.   When I worked in the Salesforce.com practice from 2004 to 2008 at Accenture, I had deep skills in emerging technology that allowed me to live and work around the country and the world.  At this stage in my career, I wanted Geographic freedom.  My rare expertise provided me with the opportunity.    

In Episode 36 of Tech Careers & Money Talk, Bart Fanelli told us how he used his expertise to achieve Missional Freedom.  He built an expertise and now is building a business around it.

Expertise in investing got me to financial freedom through thinking like an investor with my time and talent and then building my 50/50 Portfolio (more on that next week). 

Many people don’t leverage what they have built. 

For all the work people invest in their tech careers, many struggle with how build expertise with their skills and then leverage it. 

1. Lack of a clear framework to convert their skills to expertise 

2. Don’t understand or believe that they are the asset in the equation.

3. Some build expertise, but don’t know how build a brand or a business around it. 

“ The best way to achieve long-term career success is to focus on developing deep expertise in a particular area.”  - Cal Newport “So Good They Can’t Ignore You” 

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝟯-𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗘𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗲𝘀 𝗖𝗮𝗻 𝗨𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗧𝘂𝗿𝗻 𝗦𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗶𝘀𝗲

Expertise is the key to your freedom, financial and geographic.

If you want to be free, build skills to Expertise.

𝙀𝙭𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙬𝙚𝙡𝙡 𝙚𝙣𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙙 𝙖 𝙗𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙖 𝙗𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙 𝙞𝙩.

Now, let's dive in.

#𝟭: 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 & 𝗔𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀 - 𝗞𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗶𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗼𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗹𝘆.

Knowing your value allows you to negotiate for what you are worth.

As a hiring manager, I could tell who knew their market position. They would always negotiate for more salary and equity. Sometimes, their details were so thorough that they would help me put together the business case for them.

#𝟮: 𝗜𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁 & 𝗧𝗲𝘀𝘁 - 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵-𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗸 / 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵-𝗿𝗲𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘀

Experience and Results are proof your skills have become expertise.

Your skills need to be tested in the forge of business. When you can describe your results delivered, this is what builds expertise that you can build a business around.

#𝟯: 𝗜𝗹𝗹𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 & 𝗧𝗲𝗹𝗹 - 𝗧𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀, 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗱, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵.

If you have completed #1 & #2 but not #3, you won't reach your goal.

The thought leadership businesses that people build are around telling their careers and the stories that make it happen. You have great stories that people want to hear and valuable lessons to share. Learning to write, tell, and develop these is the last piece of this simple framework.

𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝗻 𝘂𝗻𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗰 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗼𝗺𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁.

Get into the details of this framework in my breakdown in this week’s podcast. 👇

Tech Equity and Money Talk is a weekly podcast showing you how to work for tech equity as a wealth-building strategy and meet your financial goals.

/038 🎙️ Career Capital: Your Blueprint to Successful Equity Trading

Your career capital combines your education, experience, and the results you've delivered.

It's essential to continuously develop this capital to position yourself for better and more equity.

Do you want to negotiate better for salary and equity? This is your episode!

I want to answer your questions!

Trying to figure out a career & money is hard; let’s face it. There is no playbook.

This week, I am starting a new section where I answer readers' questions.  You must have an outlet to ask questions and get them answered, which is why I am here.

Please reply to this newsletter with questions, and I will answer them either a reply email or in the newsletter.    

Here is a question I received recently. 

 Should you pursue private equity investments if you are eligible to be an accredited investor? If so, what do you do with it?

Let me give you a little background for those unfamiliar with the term. 

What is an accredited investor?  

In the USA, an accredited investor is a person with over $1 million in net assets (excluding your primary residence) or someone who has earned $200,000 (or jointly $300,000 with a spouse) in the two immediate preceding years.

The $1 million net worth, excluding the primary residence, can also be counted jointly with your spouse or spousal equivalent.

This is the basic definition of an accredited investor, if you want to know more, check out my blog post HERE. 

Accreditation is a designation by the SEC that allows you to invest in private equity investments. 

These would be investments like:

• Real Estate Syndications

• Private Equity Funds 

These investments allow you to have fractional ownership of various asset classes. 

• Apartment Buildings

• Self Storage Units

• Mobile Home Parks 

• Small to Mid Size Businesses

To learn more about private equity, listen to my podcast episode HERE. 

TLDR:  Being accredited gives you access to private equity investments. 

So for the question a reader asked,  Should you pursue private equity investments if you are eligible to be an accredited investor? If so, what do you do with it?

My answer is:

I can’t give you an answer that will tell you what to do. That is advice, and I am not a licensed advisor.

What I can tell you is what I and other high net-worth individuals do to answer the question and give you their reasoning. 

     As soon as I discovered what being accredited meant, I pursued private equity.   I was familiar with their key benefits and wanted that in my portfolio.

The 3 key benefits of private equity are as follows:

1. Income - Private Equity Investments, especially real estate, are made to provide tax-efficient cash flow. 

2. Diversification - During a recession, investors have great exposure to direct investments in businesses not tied to the stock market. 

3. Tax Benefits - Many private equity investments provide depreciation that reduces taxes on the income. This means less portfolio income is needed to match W-2.

These three factors got me started in private equity investing. However, when I examined the asset allocation of ultra-high-net-worth individuals, I realized that private equity and private real estate are drivers of their wealth. 

Tiger 21 - A group of individuals and families with at least $10 Million Dollars of investable Net Worth. The group meets regularly to share investing and wealth building techniques.

After my first IPO, I got on the email list not because I qualified but to get information. They provide a quarterly member allocation report. That is available to anyone.

What I saw in this report was eye-opening, to say the least. Look!

Here is the last Member Asset Allocation report published. It is of Q3 of 2023 and has the following allocation:

• 20% Public Equity

• 30% Private Equity 

• 25% Real Estate 

• 12% Cash 

• 13% - Fixed Income, Hedge funds and Miscellaneous.  

Only 20% in Public Equity Investments (Stocks and Bonds) !!

When you look at this portfolio, you see that traditional equities account for just 20%. It is easy to see that the wealthier you become, there is a different investment method.

You won’t find this way in the main stream media, you have to look past it.  

There is also a Mega Trend Shift to Private Equity

In this article, you can see that presently, private equity-backed companies have outnumbered publicly held firms since 2012, and the megatrend continues as the private equity (PE) industry flourishes.

As investors, we need to be aware that to look at all available investments, we need to understand private equity as our future looks full of it.

My journey into private equity was not easy; there were challenges, but it was well worth it. I followed the ultra-wealthy and dove into private equity, and I am not looking back.

Now you get to make your choice.

Next week, I will discuss my portfolio thesis in-depth in the newsletter and podcast.  

Let’s get to work! 

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Disclaimer: This newsletter is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or career advice. Always consult with qualified professionals before making any decisions based on the information provided.